Batman: Midknight
by Jesse Chambers
Summary: A new adventure for the Dark Knight, this one involving more than one familiar face. After Dr. Jonathan Crane claims Arkham as his own, will Batman be able to compete with the new influx of madness?


**Episode 1:  
****Zombies Need Band-Aids Too**

_Gotham's falling apart;  
__Even I can admit that in such dark times.  
__I'm not saying the city can't be saved.  
__I'm not saying I'm anywhere near giving up.  
__I'm not saying the end is near,  
__Or that the opposition is winning.  
__But recently…  
__Things have gotten a little out of hand,  
__Even by this city's standards._

_Jonathan Crane turned himself in.  
__Claiming to be a 'sane man.'  
_'_Saved by religion,'  
__Or some other bullshit.  
__Whatever god forgives him deserves the devil's hounds._

_What's worse?_

_The mayor fell for it.  
__Or more accurately,  
__The mayor was paid to fall for it.  
__And after spilling some information on other psychotics,  
__Jonathan was let free._

_There are far too many people corrupted in this city to hold any madman…_

_Let alone Dr. Crane.  
__  
__I can't believe he's a doctor again.  
__He was reinstated in Arkham,  
__One of the terms agreed to by the head of the GCPD._

_If only Gordon wasn't merely a detective…_

_I guess it would've been a good thing.  
__Crane hasn't done anything notable since his return,  
__Several loose criminals were captured thanks to his information,  
__And Arkham has received several 'security' upgrades thanks to the new ownership._

_Crane's ownership.  
__Jeremiah Arkham couldn't take it anymore…  
__I wish I could blame him…_

_Too bad there was a break-out a few days ago.  
__And some very bad men got back into the streets._

_There's been a spree of bank robberies since the incident,  
__But that's the least of our worries…_

_One of them has been kidnapping civilians.  
__Cops.  
__Teachers.  
__Children._

_Victor Zsasz._

_

* * *

_

_Before an abandoned building, flames blazing up and down its sides, and amongst the chaos created by falling debris and interior screams, a single argument stands out before the craze. A voice comes scrambled through a police radio, and the man sitting inside the only near car shouts back._

"I'm not waiting for you anymore."

"Gordon, you can't go in there alone. I'm still minutes away, and Robin isn't inside yet."

"I don't have that kind of time. You know my men don't have minutes to spare."

"You won't be able to help them if Victor kills you."

"I'm sorry."

Gordon's thin grey hair had become matted with sweat, and not only due to the fire brewing before him. There were officers inside. Innocent citizens being held against their will by 'Mr.' Victor Zsasz. Schizophrenic. Serial killer. Another piece of shit infecting the city who deserved the punishment he unjustly dished out. When he slit their throats, and toyed with their corpses, he acted like he was, 'freeing them.' Death is no freedom.

The detective opened the door to his issued brown four-door, stepping outside and gazing at the building ahead. Robin would be there shortly, and Batman would be close behind the boy wonder, but the people inside could be dying. They could be dead. He had to try to help, even if he was going to be injured in the process.

He rushed foreword, not even minding to shut the door beside him, and closed in on the front door of the foundation in no time at all. His black shoes were slamming against the hot concrete, and his long coat was flailing out behind him. His common wear probably wasn't the best suit for entering a flaming wreck, but at the moment he couldn't care less. Within the time it took it him to exhale he was inside, and looking around for the best course of action.

The fire was directly in front of him, but there was a hall at either of his sides. Which to take, he couldn't be sure. He darted left on instinct, the heat already tiring him out and forcing his breath to quicken, and he then found himself confronted by a staircase. Good, that's what he needed anyways. The fire was in it's strongest on the third floor, but it was believed Zsasz was holding his captives on the second, right where Gordon would end up after this short climb.

He paced quickly up the aged wood, hearing an explosion of broken glass come from above. His footfalls hastened accordingly, more sweat coating him, and his focus blurred. It had to be Zsasz. He was killing the officers. Why would he keep them alive anyways? This was such a fucked situation… None of it fit the man's profile. Mass kidnapping, without immediate murder? There wasn't enough time to think it through. He had to get upstairs and protect anyone he could.

He broke into the upper hallway momentarily, turning on his heel to face the primary hall. The walls were coated in ash. And blood. The fire wasn't as strong here as it was downstairs – it must've climbed down an exterior wall somehow, probably aided by gasoline, and skipped this floor entirely – but enough of it was present to tint the dark interior with a subtle orange glow. The blood could have been mistaken for another liquid, or mold even, had it not been reflecting the light. Or if each splatter didn't lead down to a naked body.

Gordon ran up to the closest nude corpse, a young girl sprawled out on the floor, crimson fluid leaking from her skull, and dropped to one knee. Two fingers went down to check a pulse. Nothing. Only now did he see the deep gash on the side of her head. Victor's knife.

He would pay for this.

He jumped to the next corpse, down again to check for a pulse. This one was a boy. No older than ten. Undressed. Bruised. Pale. Dead.  
The next one, dead.  
The next, dead.  
With each body the detective's hopes fell further, and the tears in his eyes welled more.

Suddenly, as he stood, now closer to defeat and at a much slower rate, a cough flooded the building. Over the roaring fire. The approaching sirens outside. It was all he heard for that brief moment, and he dived for the body which birthed it.

A smile came to his face when he recognized the owner. It was a rookie officer from the PD, just started last month. Brave. Yet to be tainted by the city's evil. His body was just as bare as every other victim's had been, making it all the more easy for Gordon to spot the severed flesh on the rookie's right side. He was bleeding badly, but he was alive.

It wasn't like Zsasz to just attack randomly like this.  
The knife was usual.  
But the ribs as the focal point of an attack?  
He always went for the neck.

No time to think.

Gordon threw off his coat, rolling it up and pushing it against the hideous wound beneath him. The wounded man looked up at him, obviously losing conscious but still trying to hold on.

"Don't talk," Gordon spat, "just breath."

Still pinning the jacket to the rookie's side, a sudden crash behind him interrupted his intentions. Zsasz was still here. He had almost forgotten in the moment.

"Hold this!" He said quickly, letting the youth take the coat, before getting to his feet and charging towards the source of the sound.

As he rounded the corner of the hall, stepping into a doorway, he froze.

He had found Zsasz, and in the back corner of the newfound room, he stood hunched over a body in all his mad glory. He wore nothing but a pair of ratty blue jeans. His paled flesh, displayed as his heels, his back, his shoulders, neck, and arms, was decorated with scars, each in the form of a tally mark. Sets of five. There was blood on the back of his right shoulder. New marks. One for each victim. His short blond hair was darkened with the red as well. Apparently he had started cutting his head as well.

Gordon whipped out his pistol, aimed instantly at Victor's back.

"Don't make a fucking move!"

With Gordon's shout, suddenly Zsasz laughed, or more so giggled. As the killer turned on his heel, the night's hero-to-be was blessed with the sight of the man's scarred face, and the identity of the body beneath him. It was Robin, cowering with a cut on his abdomen, scrambling to stop the bleeding. There was a broken window in the room's other corner. That must've been the smash earlier. The boy had slipped right into Victor's dangerous hands.

The shifting light caught the edge of the knife in Zsasz's hands, and Gordon took a hesitant step back. "Freeze!" He yelled again.

Victor repeated his same childish giggle, turning back to Robin. "I'm freeing him Detective, I'm killing the zombie he's become, and –"

As Zsasz was kneeling to give Robin another taste of his 'salvation,' the roar of Gordon's gunshot forced him to a standstill.

"Shouldn't have tested me…" he muttered. Zsasz dropped back, spinning on his foot and colliding with the wall, before sliding to a seated position, blood dressing the structure behind him.

The detective rushed to Robin's side, falling next to him just as he had done with the victims in the hall. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Robin coughed from behind his mask, struggling to stand.

Gordon pulled one of the boy's arms over his shoulders, pulling him to his feet.

"Where's Ba –"

Gordon was cut off mid-statement, a searing pain consuming his body. He looked down, expression confused and distant. There was a knife in his stomach, only the handle visibile from the surrounding blood that coursed about its base.

The detective stumbled down, losing Robin in the process, hands now grasping the handle protruding from his abdomen.

Seeing his friend injured, and Zsasz standing unarmed, a surge of energy filled Robin, and he lept at the madmen. The duo fell into the corner with the impact, rolling around on the searing hardwood. Both losing blood, the fight quickly became more of a match between who could grasp the other's throat the longest. Without warning, Robin drove his knee into Zsasz's crotch, effectively gaining the upper hand. In a second he was on top of Victor, blood smeared across his suit with both arms reaching down to pin his opponent.

Robin suddenly felt a hand grasp the back collar of his attire. Was Mr. Zsasz not working alone?! As the hand behind him lifted him off of the killer, he cast a weak glance over his shoulder.

"Batman…" he mumbled, being dropped to his feet. "Could've used you a few seconds ago."

Bruce said nothing beneath his mask, instead looking over to Victor's physique, now rushing to get back to a standing position. He stepped over to the criminal, towering over him with a scowl on his hidden face. "You made a big mistake Zsasz."

"I set them free!" Victor shrilled, waving his arms around, motioning towards the bodies in the hall and Gordon's crippled remains.

No words came from Batman's exposed mouth. Within the blink of an eye his right hand flew out from his side, a frenzied fist claiming the spot his hand belonged, knuckles then slamming viciously into Zsasz's nose. He felt the cartilage break beneath the force of his punch, and almost smiled as the man fell backwards into unconsciousness.

He then stepped back to Gordon, who had now fainted from the lack of blood in his body.

"Come on Jason," he called to Robin, "we've got to get Gordon outside. Zsasz isn't going anywhere."


End file.
